Max Mulhern: Navman

Welcome to the Navman art blog. This is the logbook for my repertory of continuous projects with a maritime twist. If you scroll down far enough you will find "Neo Nike", "Pedestal Designs as Sculpture" and other non-maritime related works.

Blog Archive

Navman

According to Roland Barthes, Arthur Rimbaud's drunken ship is a ship that says "I". The vessel is its own Master and takes orders only from itself. There is no other authority onboard. In this way the vessel, a sentient object, is free to navigate in any direction in which it feels compelled meaning even below the sea.This metaphor fairly characterizes my body of work. My art is a ship that says"I". It is its own Master and the only authority that can call to abandon ship. I am merely the shipwright. I keep the log as well. It is a work of historical fiction based on real artistic events.

The hull and the sea it floats on are constructed on the go and are constantly evolving. The primary materials of this construction are wood, bronze and ink. Sometimes wine is the ballast.

I create my own aids and obstacles to this navigation.

What the final form of the vessel will be is a mystery. I seem to only be able to produce fragments. All of its components, from the ballast to the cleats, are spread out across thousands of sheets of paper, diverse objects, and maritime "performances". I need to unify them. I need to sing a song that will harmonize all of the parts... not a Sea Shanty but, rather, a Sea Shall Thee....

Within this body of work the references to the world of yachting and its etiquette, rules and regulations are legion . . . . and I have forgotten what they mean.

Flooring Raft

Haven For Ancient Mariners

Nav Station

NxNxNxN

Yacht Gods

Yacht Godsare a visual manifestation of some of the various gods exerting their influence on the ways and means of the typical yacht. I hope to arrive at an image of the supreme being that helms all of these influences.I am not Catholic and yet the Virgin is a theme to be reckoned with in the repertoire of Western art. Below, the Virgin of The Bilge sees her reflection in the water slushing around in that part of the boat so reminiscent of a grotto.

Virgin of The Bilge

Contradictory Craft

Nautiherme

The Boat Man Cometh . . .

Starboat

NEO NIKE

A performance exploring the archetypes of place and cult.

I have included this project here because of the aero and hydrodynamic similarities it has with sailboats.

In 1999 I made a new Victory of Samothraki to replace the Victory which is now on display in the Louvre in Paris. The "performance" consisted of building a new Victory and transiting it across Europe to the island of Samothraki, Greece, as a gift to the inhabitants of this mystical island in the Northern Cyclades.There is a film that recounts the voyage called "Max and the Walking Sculpture" produced by Circa 01 in France.

NEO NIKE

NON MARITIME WORKS

H

Below from here are works stemming from other subjects of interest. The two common threads here are inquiries into the nature and origin of some of the tools of the trade and anthropomorphism.

This is a continuous project where I investigate the symbiosis between pedestals and sculptures and where I develop the sculptural and kinetic potential of the pedestal.

Pictured above is the EC-2 (Endless Column #2) rocket pedestal inspired by Brancusi. I launched this in 2008.

Some recent "findings":

In her book Death Comes For The Archbishop Willa Cather describes vital, irreducible relationships between natural elements. "The great tables of granite set down in an empty plain were inconceivable without their attendant clouds, which were a part of them, as the smoke is part of the censer, or the foam of the wave."

Do the pedestal and the sculpture ascribe to this?

The pedestal is a constant "A quantity taken to have a fixed value in a specified (sculptural) context". When this value is altered either the pedestal and the sculpture can no longer stand together or their roles are reversed.

Please allow me to share a home made poem:

"YOUR GAZE IS MY MEANING"

I am only loved for my body.

You supply the mind. Hasn't it always been a matter of mind over matter?

1. DIY SCULPTURE

DIY S is a series of catalogues with instructions for making sculptures at home with materials easily found either at home or in local DIY stores.

DIY Sculpture Catalogues are available through Printed Matter in New York City.

DIY Odalisque

ADVANCED diy SCULPTURE Wind Root V

4. Drawing Methods

Sometimes you keep a pencil in your shirt pocket and end up stabbing a girl in the neck with it when you kiss her. You're kissing her and she begins to squirm and so you hold her closer and she squirms even more and so ( ah, the hell with it) you let go and she bursts free holding her hand to her neck over the black and red spot you accidentally made with your pencil. What a drawing!

Deep Sea Drawing

In the summer of 2009 I donned the cap of Captain Culture and invited guests to sail into the open ocean far from the sight of land to draw the sea.